Emma’s journey hits CBD

After travelling 5700 km across Australia, Emma Timmis arrived in the Melbourne CBD on an Elliptical bicycle on October 13.

She is trying to set a Guinness world record on a machine that is commonly popular in gyms. As an outdoors sports lover, she was impressed by the buildings and the city’s traffic. However, she especially loved our network of bike paths.

She has to ride 8000 km to achieve the Guinness record, so her time in Melbourne was short – but enough to encourage people to exercise.

“Although you live in the centre you can always get out on your bike and exercise. A lot of places don’t have that, so you are really lucky here,” she said.

She is also raising funds for One Girl, a charity that promotes education projects for girls in Uganda and Sierra Leone, Africa.

It’s her motivation for riding about 130 km per day. “The organisation empowers girls that don’t have too much opportunities to get a better future,” she said.

Ms Timmis’s journey started in Western Australia, traversing small towns and large cities like Perth and Adelaide. After Melbourne she will follow the coastline to reach Sydney and hopes to finish her adventure at Byron Bay at mid-November.

Her itinerary doesn’t allow her to stay in a place for long, so she spends most of the time on her bike. Sometimes, she even eats while she is riding.

“I ride one hour and a half before the sunrise. Then I have a breakfast and I ride until the lunch. Then I ride until the sun is going down,” she said.

She drags a small trailer with her luggage.

“I pitch my tent wherever I find space. Then I make some videos of my journey and go to sleep,” she said.

In just a couple of weeks, she will be the first person in the world to cross Australia on an elliptical bike.

“There are a lot of things that I wanted to know about this city but I am so grateful because I now know a lot about this huge country,” she said.